In the thesis social and legal culture of the Ukrainian people in duration of its stay in Lithuanian Grand Duchy and Polish Kingdom has been investigated. Within the Lithuanian-Polish period the Ukrainian culture observed positive aspects in its development as well: modernization of tools in agriculture and cattle-breeding, trade and crafts; old cities expanded, new ones were founded, which transformed into the centers of commodity production and trade. Social and legal culture of this period reflected political and legal status of the Ukrainian duchies. It formed and realized on the grounds of joining up the Old Russian local customary law and legal norms, which had formed in legal acts - writs, statutes, decrees and so on. Tendencies of political, social, economic and cultural development have been substantiated. The basics of the Ukrainian customary legal culture, had been grounded in "The Russian Truth" norms, were used in Kazimir Statutes in the course of time. The lasts regulated different aspects of legal life in those spheres, where interests of the state and of private persons got mixed up. According to the Statute norms, the confiscation of private acres was applied due to court decision; family relations were regulated as well, individual property, in particular, family community was denounced. The development of culture in the Ukrainian cities aroused from the consummation of the Magdeburg Law; it covered family and everyday relations, matrimonial relations and strengthened the basics of local administration as well. The cities got free from the aldermen ruling, there courts and principles of self-government of their own were established, as well as crafts' shops and merchants' guilds activities, which influenced the cultural development of the cities. The Magdeburg Law fixed liberties, which allowed the patrons of arts to be involved in trade and different crafts. The development of the customary law could be observed in the Lithuanian Statutes by 1529, 1566, and 1588. The law, had been developed in the time of "The Russian Truth", acted around the Ukrainian lands, and was sanctioned in the Lithuanian lands. The main principles of old inheritance, family, criminal and procedural law acted in the Ukrainian lands as well as in the Lithuanian ones. The Ukrainian law was adopted by Grand Dukes Lithuanian in statute letters of privileges. The Lithuanian courts were governed by them also. The customary law played an important role in family life. The Old Russian language was applied in forming the legal stylistics of statutory acts. It acted as an official language of the government and local authorities. Legal relations between the government and the society were affirmed in state letters by Grand Dukes Lithuanian. They also regulated state, political and public relations.
